Everyone who lives in Delhi but wasn’t born here sees the city through a different lens. I was born in Shimla and, after spending my early years in different parts of Himachal Pradesh, moved to Delhi in 2020. Almost six years later, the city I once disliked has become my second home. I hated its overcrowded streets and incessant honking, and the peaceful Himachali in me was overwhelmed by it all. But Delhi grew on me-its architecture, food, people and, most importantly, its ability to absorb almost everyone. You can be whoever you want here. The city made me feel everything: happy, sad, excited and sometimes angry too. But there was one thing it never made me feel-safe. Women in Delhi have long spoken about harassment and violence in public spaces, and September 2026 saw a fresh series of reported cases of sexual violence in the capital. Then, on 26 September, I went on a night walk with a group of women. For once, walking at night did not feel like something I had to survive. It made me question why simply walking through the city after dark feels like a privilege for women in the first place.
When I first came to Delhi in 2020, I had a lot of problems with the city. The overcrowding. The unnecessary honking. The constant movement. The peaceful Himachali inside me was overwhelmed. But somewhere along the way, Delhi grew on me. I started noticing its architecture, its food, its people and, most importantly, its ability to absorb almost everyone.
Anyone can find a home here. The city made me feel everything-sadness, happiness, excitement, anger. But one thing it never made me feel was safe.
As a woman, safety is always somewhere in the back of your mind. Men staring at you when you walk past. Hands lingering around you in crowded markets. Cab drivers who make you question whether you should have booked that ride in the first place. You learn to anticipate danger before it arrives.
And that is why walking is a luxury for women. It is never just a walk. You have to think about the route before you leave. Is it too dark? Are there enough people around? Could someone be following you? You never, and I mean never, listen to music at full volume. And, ideally, you keep something in your hand that you could use to protect yourself if you have to. This is the mental checklist that comes with simply stepping outside at night.
But on 26 September, none of those thoughts crossed my mind. You may wonder how. Did policymakers and the police finally start doing their jobs? Was this some kind of utopia?
No.
I was walking with a group of women.
‘Women Walk at Midnight’ and the idea of reclaiming the streets
Women Walk at Midnight began in Delhi in 2016, inspired by the conversations around women’s safety and freedom that emerged from the Nirbhaya movement. Its idea is simple: women should be able to occupy public spaces at night because those spaces belong to them too.
The group does not describe its walks as conventional protests. Instead, women come together and walk through their cities at night, when women are often told they should be indoors.
On 26 September, despite the rain, around 70 women gathered at Kalkaji Metro station for a solidarity walk through the area. The walk came after a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three men inside Aastha Kunj Park in Kalkaji earlier that week.
Women had travelled from different parts of Delhi-NCR to join. There were artists, founders, lawyers, teachers, students and professionals. There were also mothers and daughters. Different generations of women, walking together. For a few hours, the streets belonged to them.
But this time, the police walked with them
There was one significant difference that night. Around 20 police personnel and four PCR vans accompanied the women during the walk, reportedly the first time in the nearly decade-long history of the initiative that such a police presence had been deployed.
On the surface, it was about safety. But I could not stop wondering what kind of safety we were talking about. The walk was supposed to be about women being free to walk where they wanted, when they wanted.
Yet some women felt that the police presence defeated part of that purpose. They felt that, once again, under the pretext of keeping women safe, women were being told what to do, where to go and how to move.
And that, to me, is one of the biggest problems with the way we talk about women’s safety. We teach women how to stay safe. We tell them not to walk alone. Not to take certain roads. Not to wear certain clothes. Not to stay out too late. Not to trust strangers. Not to book a cab alone. But how often do we ask men why women need all these instructions in the first place?
How difficult is it to hold the perpetrator accountable?
The women at the walk
What I liked most about the walk was the people who had joined it. There were so many women from different walks of life. People with different professions, different ages and different lives. Some had come with their mothers. Some with their daughters. Some with their sisters.
For once, families themselves seemed to be trying to confront the problem together.
And that made me think about the other half of society-the people who remain largely detached from the fear and suffering that women experience.
We are not angry enough
I used to wonder why some men could not empathise with us. Then I realised something. They have never lived this life. They have never had to calculate how dark a street is before walking through it. They have never had to wonder whether the footsteps behind them are getting closer. They have never had to carry fear into something as ordinary as a walk home. And perhaps that is why the pain can seem so distant to them.
We need to understand that the difference between a woman who is raped and murdered and me or you is not necessarily intelligence, caution, upbringing or the choices we make.
Sometimes, it is just luck.
Pure luck.
We cannot keep telling ourselves that it will never happen to us.
Because the thing about luck is that it changes.
TL;DR | News At A Glance
What happened: Women joined a solidarity night walk in Delhi’s Kalkaji area on 26 September 2026.
Who organised it: Women Walk at Midnight, a collective that began in Delhi in 2016.
Why: The walk came after a reported gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj Park in Kalkaji.
What stood out: Around 20 police personnel and four PCR vans accompanied the women.
The larger question: Why does women’s safety so often mean restricting women rather than addressing the perpetrators and unsafe public spaces?
The takeaway: For women, simply walking at night can still feel like an act of freedom.
